Superb FairywrenEclipse plumage
The Superb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus), sometimes spelt Superb Fairy-wren is a small bird with a long tail, usually held cocked. The tail of both the male and female bird is usually blue, except in the juveniles, which have brown tails.
Breeding males have a pale blue crown, cheek, and back with a thick black line that extends from the bill through the eyes and around the back of the head. The non-breeding males are a grayish-brown with black bills and bright blue tails.
The tails of the females bird are also blue, but not as strong as the males. The female have a reddish bill. The lores (the areas from the bill, on either side and extending to the front of the eyes) on the female bird is a reddish colour.
A young bird just starting to get his adult plumage ready for the coming season. I have seen these birds doing the furgling thing. A male bird from another group arrives with a yellow petal in it’s beak, whereupon the local dominant male allows him to have his way with all his females. Furgling is a form of kleptogomy (literally “marriage theft”) observed during the breeding season in Superb Fairy-wrens Malurus cyaneus. I guess this prevents inbreeding.
Author Marc Newman
Here is a “Jenny” or female. The ‘coloured’ males are often accompanied by a band of brown ‘jenny wrens’, often assumed to be a harem of females, but a proportion of them are males which have not yet attained their breeding plumage.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
- Informal: Gnathostomata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Passeriformes
- Suborder: Passeri
- Informal: Passerida
- Family: Maluridae
- Subfamily: Malurinae
- Genus: Malurus
- Subgenus: infrageneric Malurus
- Species: Malurus cyaneus
Footnote & References
- Malurus (Malurus) cyaneus (Ellis, 1782), Superb Fairy-Wren, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:0f520c9b-90ac-4a0b-bc2e-800b4f5a2665
- Superb Fairywren, Malurus cyaneusd, eBird, https://ebird.org/species/supfai1
Superb FairywrenEclipse plumage
Australasian WrensDusky Grasswren Purple-backed Fairywren Red-backed Fairywren Southern Emu-wren Splendid Fairy-wren Superb Fairywren Variegated Fairywren White-winged Fairywren
BirdsApostlebird Australasian Darter Australasian Figbird Australasian Gannet Australasian Grebe Australasian Pipit Australasian Robins Australasian Shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis) Australasian Wrens Australian Babblers Australian Bustard Australian Chats Australian Magpie Australian Pelican Australian Pratincole (Stiltia isabella) Australian White Ibis Bassian Thrush Black-faced Cormorant Black-faced Woodswallow Black Swan Bowerbirds Brolga Brown Songlark Channel-billed Cuckoo Cinnamon Quail-thrush Cormorants Cuckooshrikes and Allies Dotterels Lapwings Plovers Doves & Pigeons Emu Fairy Martin Finches Grey Fantail Grey Teal Honeyeaters Kingfishers Little Friarbird Little Grassbird Magpie-lark Masked Woodswallow Noisy Pitta Olive Whistler Paradise Riflebird Pardalotes Parrots Pheasant Coucal Pied Butcherbird Rainbow Bee-eater Raptors Rufous Fantail Redthroat Rufous Bristlebird Silver-crowned Friarbird Torresian Crow Waders Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida) White-browed Woodswallow White Capped Noddy White-faced Heron White-necked Heron Willie Wagtail Yellow-throated Scrubwren